William C. Brown is a member of BrownWinick. During his tenure at BrownWinick, Bill has served as Managing Member and Vice Chair of the firm's Management Committee and in numerous other leadership roles within the firm.

Bill has practiced law in the areas of taxation, securities, business planning, estate planning and banking for over 30 years. He represents business clients in all aspects of their business operations, including mergers and acquisitions, capital formation, equity and debt financing, business planning, employee fringe benefits, board of directors operations and duties, shareholder matters, estate planning and contract negotiations.

With special expertise in the taxation of S corporations, Bill has served on the S Corporation Committee of the American Bar Association and the Section of Taxation Council of the Iowa State Bar Association. He has published articles on tax issues affecting businesses and their owners, including, "Evaluating a Subchapter S Conversion," 37 Drake Law Review 395 (1988) (click here to read article); "Dividend Equivalency in Stock Sales to Related Corporations," 132 Tax Notes, Number 4 (July 25, 2011) at page 415 (click here to read article); "Judicial Expansion of the Future Interest Exception to the Gift Tax Annual Exclusion - Examination of the Legislative History and Policy Basis for the Future Interest Exception," 65 Tax Law 477 (2012) (click here to read article) and "A Primer on Income Tax Compliance for Multistate Pass-Through Entities and Their Owners," The Tax Lawyer, Vol. 67, No. 4 (Summer 2014) (click here to read article).

Leveraging his experience in lobbying and governmental affairs, Bill has represented the Iowa Small Business Coalition; a group of Iowa based S corporations, in lobbying for favorable Iowa tax legislation. That work has resulted in the enactment of several pieces of legislation benefiting his S corporation clients.

Bill is a frequent speaker on issues of concern to businesses and their owners, addressing issues of taxation, estate planning, securities regulation, business financing and banking. He has spoken at the University of Iowa Spring Tax Institute and the Iowa State Bar Association December Tax School, as well as at continuing legal education programs sponsored by Drake University, the Iowa State Bar Association, the University of Iowa and others. Bill has also been an adjunct professor of law at the University of Iowa and Drake University Law Schools.

Bill has served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, Iowa's largest business trade association, and has served as the Chair on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of that organization. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Lisle Corporation, an Iowa company that is one of the largest manufacturers of specialty automotive tools in the United States, and its sister company, EZ Way, Inc., a leading manufacturer of patient lifts and other patient handling devices for the hospital and nursing home industries.

Since 1999, Bill has been listed in Best Lawyers in America® in the area of tax law and in the 2015 edition of Best Lawyers, Bill was named Best Lawyers' Lawyer of the Year in Tax Law. In 2004 Bill was selected for inclusion in Chambers USA® as a leader in Iowa in the area of corporate/M&A, and in 2008 he was included in SuperLawyers® in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and tax. Bill is a fellow in the American College of Tax Counsel.

Bill is also active in community affairs. He has served in leadership positions of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, the Iowa Taxpayers Association, United Way of Central Iowa, the Greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce Federation, the Polk-Des Moines Taxpayers Association and St. Augustin's Church. Bill is currently a Board Member at Large for the Des Moines Downtown Chamber of Commerce.

Bill received his B.A., with honors, in psychology and his J.D., with highest distinction, from the University of Iowa. He was admitted to the bar in 1977. Bill received his LLM in Taxation, summa cum laude, from the University of Alabama in 2012.

BrownWinick is proud to announce that 18 attorneys were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2014 (copyright 2012 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, SC), the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession.

BrownWinick has been ranked as a "leading law firm" in Chambers USA® 2012 - America's Leading Lawyers for Business in the areas of Corporate/M&A, Labor & Employment, Litigation: General Commercial and Real Estate.

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BrownWinick has been ranked as a "leading law firm" in Chambers USA® 2012 - America's Leading Lawyers for Business in the areas of Corporate/M&A, Labor & Employment, Litigation: General Commercial and Real Estate. Eight attorneys from BrownWinick were selected for inclusion in Chambers USA® 2012